IMPOSSIBILITY OF UTILIZING THE TELEGRAPH LINES BY NIGHT AS WELL AS DAY.

Mr. Hubbard says, “If the present business could be distributed over all the hours of the day, or if there were sufficient business for all the wires the whole day, the rates could be largely reduced”; but neither of these propositions can be realized. The telegraph is an errand-boy which every one uses when the exigency requires it, and which no one will use unnecessarily, even though it work for nothing. In order to utilize the wires during those portions of the day and night when they are comparatively idle, the Western Union Telegraph Company adopted the following rates for night messages:—

“This company will transmit messages between the principal cities on its lines east of St. Louis and New Orleans, both inclusive, during the night, and deliver the same the succeeding morning, on the following terms: For a message of 20 words or less, the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged. For a message of more than 20 words, and not exceeding 60 words, twice the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged. For a message of more than 60 words, and not exceeding 120 words, three times the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged. For each additional 100 words, or part thereof, in excess of 120 words, the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged in addition. Such messages will be known as NIGHT MESSAGES. They will be received for transmission at any time during the day or evening, and will be sent during the succeeding night. No additional charge will be made for cipher messages.”

The very moderate success of our night-message experiment, notwithstanding the large inducements offered, proves that the use of the telegraph is required not merely for communication, but for emergency and despatch. It is also a fact worthy of notice, that very little of this business is done between Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, notwithstanding the low rates, whereby over a hundred words can be transmitted for a dollar. It is done mainly between remote places like Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Memphis, and New Orleans, communication between which by mail requires from two to four days.

In support of this theory we submit a statement of the night-message business between New York City and all points on our lines for the months of March, July, and October. These months represent fairly the varying phases of our business in respect to trade in different sections of the country at different seasons of the year.

The total number of night messages sent and received between New York City and all places on our lines for the three months named was 6,273, divided as follows:—

Between New York andCharleston, S. C.276
Between New York andChicago, Ill.904
Between New York andCincinnati, O.326
Between New York andSt. Louis, Mo.433
Between New York andMilwaukee, Wis.176
Between New York andMemphis, Tenn.316
Between New York andMontgomery, Ala.176
Between New York andMobile, Ala.402
Between New York andNew Orleans, La.1,195
Between New York andAll other places2,069
Total, 6,273

Our night-message experiment has proved that the telegraph will not be used at night, at any tariff, except to a moderate extent and between distant points.

The absurdity of placing the telegraph and postal systems in the same category has been fully shown on pages [43] and [44]. Mr. Hubbard appears to have read Mr. Scudamore’s charges against the English system, and applied them literally to the telegraphs of this country. Unfortunately, however, charges which may be true as applied to the companies operating the telegraphs in the United Kingdom have no pertinency when reproduced as the shortcomings of the American system.